Watching Irene

So, my partner and I are at the Winedale place, where the forecast is that Saturday will be the hottest day we’ve ever experienced in our 20-odd years here. We’re keeping up, as well, with the movement of Hurricane Irene. Looks pretty ugly right now.

Many of us understand well how those coastal North Carolina people are feeling, with that monster moving in. Makes you hear the howl of Texas storms we’ve dealt with. Carla. Cindy. Beulah. Celia. Alicia. Claudette. Rita. Katrina. Ike. I’m missing a few. Carla in ’61 is my most memorable storm, mainly because it gave me my first hurricane experience.

If Irene really moves with force into New York City, hoo boy, what a mess she could make. We have family members living on the 11th floor of a high-rise in Manhattan, down close to Battery Park. Just got the word that they’re evacuating. Moving uptown.

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As native New Englanders, many of our friends and family are on the East Coast including a daughter and son-in-law, aunts, cousins in the Boston area…and we have a new house in New Hampshire on a lake…we are very fearful and wish we could be there…Especially since our experiences with Gulf storms have been so frightening…thanks for asking.

Yes, Irene is “big, important national news.” Carla is probably my major hurricane memory, and Beulah; after that would have to be Katrina, because it brought so many new people to Houston. I was still a schoolteacher at that time and we got many new students and some (certainly not all) had tremendous adjustment problems. I guess that’s to be expected.

Does it ever both you that whatever happens on the “right coast,” or the “left coast” is always national news? The things that happen between New York and Los Angeles are often treated as being minor,unimportant or inconsequential. A major hurricane that strikes Texas or Mississippi get some mention in the national media, but it is mostly covered by the local media. I don’t mean just weather news, but all news. Have you seen a national news story about crop failures in The Panhandle because of drought, or failures in the Mid-West because of Spring floods?

A pair of pandas, mating in the woods in China gets world wide coverage. A pair of skunks, doing the same thing, in the Piney Woods, at Boles Field, near the Dreka fire tower, in Shelby County doesn’t get a mention. Aren’t the skunks just as black and white? Just as cute and cuddly?

If it happens in the middle of the country, it probably just didn’t happen. Kind of like that proverbial tree falling in the forest.

I guess it depends on your news sources. Those fires in the Panhandle a few years back and the Texas fires this year got a lot of coverage. And all the flooding in N. Dakota from the snow melt in the past plus all the midwest flooding this year was covered very well. The major tornados are well covered. And every major Gulf Coast hurricane got a lot of coverage. This drougth certainly has received a lot of national coverage. The West Coast & East Coast have a lot more people. That alone gives them an edge on news stories, more folks to do something great, something evil, or something stupid. What makes me sick is that the public seems to want all the latest on the trash out in Hollywood that I could do without.

Any news from Middle Earth that hits the national news usually covers our execution of some poor innocent mass murderer who wasn’t potty trained as a child causing the perp to strike out at all society for his ill upbringing. Now THAT’S news!

I tend to agree. Tropical Storm Alison was a terrible experience in Houston, (My aunt got 4 ft of water in her house) but it was only reported in passing elsewhere in the USA. At that time, my best friend from Houston was working in St Paul, MN, and I mailed her the Chronicle special section reporting on it; she was shocked and indignant that it received so little coverage in Minnesota.

I was here for Carla as well, but was only 12 years old and can remember looking out the front window of our Meyerland house and watching the new roofs of the houses under construction peel off. Then, in 1970 I went through Celia in Corpus Christi. I was 20 years old and I can remember being scared, and seeing my Father actually scared as well. If you have never heard a 140MPH wind howling for hours on end in the pitch dark, be thankful.

There was a huge metal tank, like you see around an oil refinery. It was on the east side of a highway south of Port Lavaca. Celia moved it across the highway. The most shocking was to find a huge ship sitting on top of I-10 in Mobile Alabama.

Hurricane Carla hit down the coast from Houston but we were on the dirty side and a young Dan Rather set the pattern for reporters to take on the hurricane, face to face, mano a mano, tet a tet! So it’s a true miracle that we haven’t lost a slew of up and coming reporters, shooting for instant fame, as they emulate Rathers feat. Or toes??

My son is a Marine and stationed at Camp Lejune (sp?) which is loctaed in Cherry Point NC. It’s about ten miles from the coast. He’s currently on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan but has all of his stuff in storage in Cherry Point. He’s worried his stuff will be destroyed.

Dear friends have been on Long Island on family vacation, at his elderly mother’s house. Their daughter reported they made firm decision to ride out the storm with the mother. They also had plans to attend an outdoor wedding on Sat! I feel sorry for that bride. My stepson moved to Washington DC this week. What timing.

I saw a little earlier that the eye wall of the storm was collapsing because dry air from Atlanta area drought being pulled into the interior of storm circulation. However winds were still 100mph, and storm surge wasn’t appearing to abate any. I hope nobody gets blasted by it.

All of you who are turned that way, please pray for friends and stepson.

Yep, I have a son in Sparkill, NY whose house has a creek behind it. Hope it doesn’t flood.

Have a 22 yr old granddaughter who just returned yesterday to Old Dominion Univ in Norfolk. Got there just before the Univ. announced it was closing all student housing. Weird! Where are they supposed to go? Anywhere but on campus, ODU seems to be saying. Celia’s mom flew up with her so fortunately, Celia (actually named after the hurricane that blew through Corpus 22 years ago) can stay with her Mom in a motel for a few days. Her Mom’s stay may be extended if she can’t get a flight back to Austin.

Your front porch at Winedale sounds like a good place to ride out Irene!

I continue to enjoy your columns via the internet. I knew Durwood Fleming well. He once asked me to be his Associate at St. Luke’s-Houston. I declined and went to “Tatum-on-the-Santa Fe” in ETex instead. Have always wondered how my ministerial career might have been different if I had taken him up on his kind offer.

Incidentally, Durwood wouldn’t have minded at all if you had called him Durwood even as he sat behind that Presidential desk at Southwestern, though I understand your reluctance. I’ll never forget Dr. Paul Deats at the Methodist student center at U.T. who INSISTED we students call him Paul. I’d never called a preacher anything except “Brother Alexander,” “Brother Carter,” etc. so it was HARD for me to say simpy, “Paul”. Eventually it became easier and he seemed more and more like a real friend. He had more to do with my hearing a call to the ministry than any other single influence.

Throughout my career I insisted adults call me Gus but as a compromise for youth and kids whose parents wanted them to show some respect for the office of clergy, I suggested “Brother Gus” which seemed friendlier than “Brother Browning”. I still get mail and calls now and then from former youth and kids who still use that appellation.

When I served as Interim Pastor at The American Protestant Church of The Hague, there was a strong Lutheran influence and most members called me “Pastor Browning”. That seemed rather nice.

Brother Gus, welcome to the blog. If you’ve posted before I missed it. Its good to have another minister on the blog. Some of these folks need all the preacher help they can get. :o)

Seriously, you’ve joined a quality group of blog posters. Welcome to the Porch.

If dry air kills a hurricane, them I hope Irene is powerful enough to suck some of this dry air from West Texas into it. If so then some Panhandle whirlwinds would be more powerful. It’s dry when the weathermen start reporting places receiving .02 hundredths of rain.

My Mom is about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, an Aunt/Uncle in Wilmington, DE and cousins in NJ and MD. Thankfully no one is near the coast where it will be the worst. Still, people up there aren’t used to them like we are…kind of like when it snows here!

Major parts of my beloved MARINE CORPS is dead center in the path of Irene. MCRD Parris Island is just across a short bridge from Beaufort, South Carolina. I matriculated there in 1963 for 13 weeks. A Short bus trip North takes one to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Some call the area New River. I rode one of those Big Dogs to Camp Geiger in Lejeune to take a little Amphibious Infantry training there.

I was in “Running R” Company. Our Commander saved The Corps major diesel bills by running us all over that camp rather than calling Motor T to carry us to the next training syllabus. I remember one day they fed us Spagetti
( just like the recent Airborne movie, spagetti IS NOT the best physical training ration ) out of a field kitchen. We all puked several miles all the way to a John Wayne .45 course, and also had to dump our canteens on two men who got heat stroke, as well. One Sergeant started taking smack about some ( USMC word not allowed ) not packing the gear until one man turned around and just looked at him sort of thoughtfully with a loaded M1911 in his hand. That Sergeant got a message from the man’s look and shut up until the ambulance came. Haha

MCAS Cherry Point is near there as well. MARINE Wing Wipers live there.

On to the North of there is Quantico, Virginia, where MARINE Officers take their basic training.

I’m beginning to hope that Irene can’t figure out how to jump the entire USA and get MCRD San Diego and Camp Pendleton, AND Pacific Amphibious Training Base Coronado as well.

Yes my little Grandsons ( too old to call them little Brothers, any more ) are in danger, but, at least, like the smart little pig, they live in Brick Barracks now, not the old WWII barracks I lived in once upon a time in a USMC far far away….:-})

And yes… I am worried about all those Dogfaces on their bases strung along through the Carolinas as well. Keep them ALL in your prayers, folks.

I’ve only one acquaintance up that way. He lives in the Boston area. I wonder what NYC will do if the subways flood. That would take a while to clean out.

I too remember Carla well. Even here in the up country lots of wind and rain.

The Rita run was impressive. Our VFD was called out to keep order at one of the first working gas stations north of Houston. Trying to keep order was a chore and often called for strong measures and language. Scared people have no sense at all. I45 with all four lanes going north was impressive.

We tried to get deputies from the SO to help us but there weren’t enough deputies. Sheriff just told us to do what we had to do. We did. Sort of like an old west movie when the outlaws try to take over the town for a few hours. Just say I spent about six hours with a .45 tucked in the small of my back under my bright orange rescue vest. Never actually displayed it but came very very close a couple of times before would be tough guys listened to reason and a five cell flashlight.

One enduring lesson; a bag of cheetos and a hot one liter bottle of Pepsi does not constitute three days rations. That seems to be what most of the runners had though.

Here on the (former) Space Coast, we were brushed by Irene with our highest gusts at around 40. I started preparations early – one of the items on my list is dumping water out of the pool in case we get a lot of rain. Then I had a senior moment, a lot of them. I spent yesterday running water back in the pool and can look forward to a hefty water bill.

NYC question, would a large storm surge flood the subway tunnels or do they have pumps that can handle the large amount of water?

Ralph W — That trash news out in Hollywood is very big business. That is why one sees so much of it. I guess that there are a lot of people who just love to know about other people’s business and problems. Not me.

I was 13 when Hurricane Carla hit. My Dad was a great outdoorsman so we were well prepared with iceboxes, Coleman lanterns and extra mantles and fuel; we had a barbecue pit and an ample supply of charcoal, and lots of non-perishable foods. It seemed to take over 2 weeks to get electricity or phones back, but I have pleasant memories of the silence: no TV, no air conditioners noises; just the friendly song of toads. Without street lights it was so dark that the night sky full of stars was wonderful; everyone commented on the silence and the diamond stars. I have cozy memories of an evening’s entertainment: the three of us sitting around a Coleman lantern on the kitchen table reading books,

Mom and I had a broom and a hoe at the front and back doors of our old clapboard house in Old Heights (fortunately built on pier and beam foundation) so we could push off coiled snakes taking refuge on the steps. We were knowledgeable about snakes and only killed the cotton-mouths, who have a nasty aggressive disposition–we wanted minimum of carrion around, as there was no garbage pick up for a long time, and nobody felt like digging holes in gumbo mud to bury anything. The other snakes–including copperheads– we just swept vigorously away, as there were plenty of possums that survived the flood who like to eat snakes.

I have a family member in NYC who “bases” at a homeless shelter. For her, the Hurricane evacuation will mean no hardship as she will not be worrying about possessions left behind (she has none) and temporarily be an improvement in her standard of living, and an adventure out of the ordinary. She’s bipolar and can’t hold a job, but loves New York and chose to live there.

My youngest son lives in Princeton, NJ. He thinks that is far enough inland to avoid everything but the rain. I hope so.

I rode out Carla in Austin. It was pretty hairy even 180 miles inland. All the power lines whipping around and sparking made it look like the 4th of July.

During Ike, I remember a Houston TV reporter, set up somewhere between Port Lavaca and Corpus, leaning into the wind and shouting his report into his microphone. Trouble was, in the background you could see two dudes in t-shirts and shorts sitting on a bench sipping beer beneath a palm tree the fronds of which were barely moving.

Robert Owen is right. The only time skunks get the attention they deserve is when you are face-to-face with one.

We’ve got a niece who lives in southwestern Connecticut. They’re projected to get 75mph winds and the ground is completely saturated, so they’ve cut down a number of the trees that are close to their house . They just had record snowfall last winter, so it’s been quite a weather year for them.

My first hurricane of memory was Carla. At 12 years old I began to think, ‘ya know, that storm came ashore 450 miles from here, and just blew trees down in our yard, and took most of our roof!’. I was impressed.

My morbid curiosity about hurricanes was then cured. So being the intelligent person I am, I moved my family to within 90 miles of the coast in 1974. Been dodging hurricanes ever since, sometimes succesfully sometimes not.

At this late account,13:30 Sunday, it seems it is not bad as forcast, but still being reported some nine or so have lost their lives. I have no one ‘cept fellow citizens on the east coast, but I still worry about them and wish them well.

I too thought the National Press, seem to be providing more coverage than we get during one of our blowhards, but then again, a lot more potential victums are involved due to the expected track of the storm. Also, I believe we tend to listen to local news more often during our storms, and miss some of the national reports.

I had just started my senior year in high school and we had gone only a few days when Carla hit. My mother and I rode out Carla at Ellington AFB along with some friends. We were on the second floor of an office building and could see all the wind and rain from big windows. Being on an AFB we never lost power, we sat up all night and played cards. Just after the worst had passed the alerts went out for water spouts coming up the Houston Ship Channel. We were lucky our house only sustained some broken windows and water on the first floor and our big oak trees were still standing. Carla is one hurricane I’ll never forget.